Thursday, 20 June 2013

Ebedi residency for writers… A haven in need of govt, corporate support

Stories by Anote Ajeluorou

Set at the foot of a hill in
ancient, serene Ebedi town, the Dr. Wale Okediran-inspired residency for
writers has continued to be a haven for writers from across the African
continent. From Uganda, South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe and, of course, Nigeria,
Ebedi International Writers Residency has hosted some of the finest, young
literary minds defining and shaping a continent’s writing culture.

So far, such writers as Doreen Baingana (Tropical Fish), Dul Johnson (Why Women Won’t Make it to Heaven), Igoni Barrett (From the Cave of Rotten Teeth), Yewande Omotoso (Bom Boy), Barbara Oketa, Ayodele Olufintuade (Eno’s Story) and many more have drank from the serene, inspiring
well of Ebedi. Each year there are no less than three sessions with no less
than three writers admitted into the residency, solely financed by Okediran,
with provision of feeding and board in a four to eight weeks’ stay.

With three writers – Ghanaian Macdell Kofi Joshua Sackey and
Nigerians’ Chiaka Ukachukwu Obasi and Taofeek Olayiwola – who recently had a
six weeks’ stay at Ebedi, the profile of the only writers’ residency resort in
West Africa keeps rising and gaining acceptance among writers. But just like their
counterparts that had tasted the serene and salubrious ambience of Ebedi, these
three writers are not happy that the noble objectives of Ebedi as conceived by
Okediran, medical doctor-turned-writer and politician, are yet to penetrate the
thinking of various governments and corporate Nigeria so as to come to its aid
and boost it.

For them, Ebedi International Writers Residency programme is
an incubation ground for literary creativity not unlike the many talent hunt
and reality TV shows enjoying massive monetary endorsement from corporate
Nigeria and showing on various TV stations, gulping several millions of naira
to sustain them annually.

Although tucked away in the quiet of Ebedi town in Oyo
State, these three writers still found it odd that the beauty and value of this
unique writers’ resort was yet to be discovered and properly harnessed as part
of nurturing the creative endeavours of young Nigerian, nay Africans in the
hallowed field of writing, clearly the continent’s most successful creative cultural
engagement and export to the outside world, with four Nobel Prizes to show for
it!

For Olayiwola, who writes in Yoruba, Ebedi residency, which
started in 2010, ought to have had corporate financial support by now so its
burden didn’t rest solely on its founder Okediran alone. That way, he stated,
the gains of the residency would be deepened and its impact far fetched among
African writers. With another literary prize, Etisalat Literature Prize newly
opened to first time published authors of African origin, the nurturing,
incubating workroom Ebedi provides would go a long way in getting the
creativity of the continent’s writers soaring.

“So far the programme has been on self-sponsorship”,
Olayiwola lamented, “People should come and support it. Various governments’
empowerment programmes for youth should also be extended to Ebedi International
Writers Residency programme, as a way of promoting creativity. The value of
Ebedi to literary creativity is limitless. Government and companies should
support this project.”

Obasi, a dramatist, also called on government and corporate
bodies to support Ebedi, as part of a wider support for cultural expression in
the country and the continent. He particularly called on corporate bodies that
regularly sponsor musical shows and other entertainment talent-hunt projects to
look the way of writers as well, particularly Ebedi.

Sackey, who was apparently excited at what Ebedi offers
writers, also called for international collaboration to make Ebedi even better
to continue to nurture the aspirations of the continent’s writers.

For these three writers and several others like them, who
have passed through Ebedi, whereas writing is sometimes viewed as a reclusive
and intellectual engagement, it still has ennobling society as its central, and
support for it could no longer be denied it by those with the means to do so,
whether government or companies.

AND, at the closing ceremony
last Saturday that attended these three writers’ stay at Ebedi, which involved
active participation of local school students of Ebedi Community Grammar
School, poetry reading and recitation, singing and dancing and a quiz contest,
was held. This was part of activities of community service for residents; it
required resident writers to interact and impart useful, creative skills to the
school’s students.

A literature schoolteacher Prince Femi Olalere commended
Okediran for his vision in setting up the residency to encourage creativity and
for consistently spending his money to sustain it thus far. He also thanked the
residents for imparting the students, further noting, “We thank the residents
for grooming the students in different creative areas like dancing, singing and
writing. I want to say that the students have learnt a lot from the resident writers’
mentorship. Indeed, they are privileged to be learning from the resident
writers. It’s my hope that the students would make use of what they have learnt
from the writers to improve their lives”.

Rasaq Ibrahim recited a visionary poem, ‘I have a dream’; a
3-woman act staged a skit on drunkenness and Maryam Adewole and Deborah Rowland
read poems in Yoruba.

All three writers (Sackey, Olayiwola and Obasi) testified to
the conducive ambience Ebedi International Writers Residency offers writers in
helping them continue and complete ongoing works, and the hospitality the
community also offered them in their short stay. Obasi, who just completed work
on Fatherland, said, “I will
remember most the hospitality of Ebedi people. Okediran and his people have
shown us brotherly love. I’ve had no distraction to write. It’s been wonderful
spending some weeks here. It’s the right place Okediran has set up. It’s hard
to see a full time writer without the distractions of workaday life; the
environment here is serene. I have enjoyed it so far”.

“I’m greatly encouraged by the camaraderie radiating in this
community,” Olayiwola reminisced. “Within the last three weeks that I got here,
I did a great deal. I’ve never had it so serene, so cool, so friendly as Ebedi.
I’ve had a wonderful experience. The serenity has really helped me a lot; it’s
as if we have lived here all our lives!”

The Ghanaian was probably more effusive, when he noted, “I’m
going to miss the ambience, the serenity; this place is conducive for writing;
it’s a fine place to cogitate and write! I’ve completed two books – on poetry
and children’s story. I’m inspired by nature”.